Our Social Strategy

Social media provides a multitude of opportunities to share the Case Western Reserve message and improve our brand recognition. But with opportunity also comes potential failure. Without a unified social media strategy, Case Western Reserve will present a conflicting appearance, which could lead to issues such as loss of confidence in the information coming from the school, department or program.

This social media strategy, which guides the main Case Western Reserve accounts, is part of a larger overall communications strategy from UMC and other units.

Of course, every account on every platform should have its own strategy, its own voice and its own message to share. We don’t have to share the same stories (how boring would that be?), but we do need to have overarching goals that allow us to individually, in our own unique way, tell our collective story.

Through our use of social media, we aim to:

Communicate our key messages to a broad audience.

Enhance the reputation of Case Western Reserve by promoting appropriate, relevant content.

Protect the university’s reputation if misinformation is spread.

Create a dialogue among our audiences.

Foster a sense of pride in being part of the Case Western Reserve community.

Inform and educate our audience in interactive, engaging ways.

Improve consistency in social media style across the university—while encouraging personal tone, voice and messaging to meet each constituency’s needs.

Grow Case Western Reserve’s social media presence to become a major part of the university’s communication strategy.

Meet our audiences’ wants and needs by analyzing metrics and mentions to see how we can better tailor our strategies.

Implement best practices across all social media platforms.

Build community and goodwill.

Why Should (or Shouldn’t) You Use Social Media?

Social media can be a powerful tool to disseminate news, connect with audiences and build a sense of community. At Case Western Reserve, we fully support the use of social media by schools and organizations—as long as there is a clear strategy behind it.

You see, social media alone isn’t a marketing plan; it’s just one of many effective outlets necessary for a successful integrated marketing and communications plan.

So before you get create a Facebook page for your department or launch a blog for your event, you need to think strategically. Ask yourself—and your supervisors—the following questions:

How can social media help us meet (and exceed) our goals?

Is social media the appropriate channel for reaching our audience(s)?

Who is our audience(s), and do they use certain social media channels?

Which platforms or tools will be most effective?

Do we have the resources for content development, execution and long-term maintenance?

Perhaps the most important question, though, is simply: Do we need a social media account?

If you don’t have news and information to post regularly (we recommend at least three times per week on Facebook, a few times a month on Instagram and once per day on Twitter, for example), then you likely do not need your own social media account.

Instead, please share your information with University Marketing and Communications to consider for its vehicles. We have built a large following on our official social media outlets and are always looking for more information to share and ways to showcase our wide-ranging university community. But we can’t post what we don’t know, so share with us! Email socialmedia@case.edu with your ideas.